


Powerful Men Consume

by erikssiren



Category: Reign (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Kenna & Lola friendship, Suggested Lola/Narcisse, post-episode scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-11-26
Packaged: 2018-02-27 01:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2674556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erikssiren/pseuds/erikssiren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kenna and Lola discuss the tea Lola shared with Narcisse and Kenna offers a warning. Set during 2x06.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Powerful Men Consume

**Author's Note:**

> The characters are not mine, but the story is. Please don't copy this and claim it as your own. There has been a problem with this lately and I wanted to add this here.   
> Another fic! I really wanted to write something featuring Kenna and Lola's friendship, especially since they talked about Narcisse before Lola went to have tea with him but then not after. Not beta'd, so please excuse any and all mistakes.

Lola found herself walking through the hallways towards her chamber without any real recollection of how she arrived back at the castle. She remembered Narcisse pressing up behind her, his voice sending shivers down her back; the thrill of hitting the target’s bulls-eye and after…well, it all became a jumble of awkward pauses (on her part) and knowing smirks (on his).

“There you are!” Kenna’s voice broke Lola’s thoughts and she smiled broadly at her friend lounging outside Lola’s door. “I was worried about you.”

“I’m fine,” Lola answered as she opened the door, letting Kenna in behind her. They both flopped onto her bed, Kenna reclining on her side while Lola sat with her back against the pillows at her headboard.

“So, what happened?” Kenna asked after a moment, obviously bursting with curiosity. “Was it tea, or was it _tea?_ ”

Lola laughed. “Just tea, real tea. And then we talked,” she trailed off slightly, unconsciously rubbing her left forearm where the leather buckles had bit into her skin.

“And?” Kenna prompted, her eyes flickering down at the motion then quickly back up to Lola.

“And then he showed me how to shoot his bow,” Lola finished, looking down at her friend’s grinning face.

“Is that code for something?” Kenna’s eyes danced with mischief.

“No!” Lola laughed. “There were targets set up in the yard where we had tea. I saw them and said I didn’t know how to shoot.”

“Liar,” Kenna giggled, sitting up to rest beside Lola. “Mary’s mother made sure we all knew how to pick up a weapon. And you’re the only one of us who could master the bow.”

Lola blushed slightly. “I wanted to see what he’d do,” she admitted. “He’s had me off my guard this entire time; I needed to try and put him off his.”

“Very cunning, I’m impressed,” Kenna said. “So what happened?”

“Well, he used it as an opportunity to completely ignore the proper space between a man and a woman,” Lola started, her words halting. The spark that had passed between them when he touched her arm, it still smoldered inside her.

“Of course he did,” Kenna said lightly, though she seemed to pick up on Lola’s hesitation. “A man like that isn’t going to not use it to his advantage. But what else?”

“There was a moment, he was putting the brace on my arm and he-“ she began, struggling to put words to the emotions. “He tied the buckles a little too tight, but then he…there was a look in his eye-” She cut herself off, shivering at the memory of the slight pain and gentle caress that followed.

“Like he enjoyed it?” Kenna interrupted softly. Lola couldn’t look at her, couldn’t let her friend see that she had enjoyed it too. Maybe. Or maybe it was only with him. He muddled her thoughts too much; she couldn’t think clearly around him. Or maybe he let her see herself clearly for the first time. The thought was too terrifying. She didn’t want to know who she was, not like that.

“There are men who like that: tying up their partners or being tied up.” She took Lola’s hand and squeezed it gently. “Are you alright?” There was the unspoken fear-the king had enjoyed those sorts of games near the beginning of his madness. Was that Narcisse’s fate too?

Lola stood abruptly, her stomach a knot of fear, excitement and uncertainty. “You were right,” she said as she began to pace. “He is dangerous and I should stay away from him.” She glanced over at Kenna, who had scooted to the end of the bed and watched her friend with concern. “But not for the reason people think.”

“What do you mean?”

“When he stared at me like that, with this sort of hunger in his eyes…” Lola trailed off, her back to Kenna as she remembered the heat in the pit of her stomach at that look. “In that moment I felt like I would do anything he asked me.” She turned back toward her friend. “I felt drawn to him, but more…it was like I was someone else and that someone would submit to him entirely.”

Kenna stood slowly and grasped both of Lola’s hands reassuringly, her smile kind but knowing. “Powerful men have a way of doing that,” she said softly. “They’ll completely consume you if you let them and they’re used to women letting them.” Tears gathered in her eyes. “Henry sought to do the same to me and I thought I would never be free of him, but it was he who freed me by marrying Bash.”

The sadness in Kenna’s voice brought tears to Lola’s eyes as well. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Lola whispered. “I know I should keep away from him, but there’s a part of me that is growing increasingly larger that doesn’t.”

“Lola you have to do your best to keep your head clear,” Kenna ordered firmly. “When you’re around him, when you feel yourself being pulled toward him think of something or someone who don’t want to lose; a loss you could not bear. That will help keep you grounded.”

“Think of someone else?” Lola looked at her friend, incredulous. “Did you do that?”

“I had no one to think of,” Kenna admitted simply. “I thought I had risen as far as I could; that no one else would want me the way he did. I let him consume me and I could have died for it. Others did.”

It was Lola’s turn to offer comfort; Kenna didn’t tell them much about her relationship with the former king, which was their own fault for reacting so poorly when she first told them. If only they had known…

“I’m your friend, Lola,” Kenna said as she held Lola’s hands tighter and her voice turned harder. “But believe me when I say he doesn’t want you, he wants whatever use you can be to him. You must see that.” Her words stung and Lola pulled her hands away quickly. Yet she thought of her interactions with Narcisse so far, and the timing of his attention. She remembered his first words to her in the forest and the pointed emphasis on them even then. Or was she remembering them with Kenna’s slanted view of him now?

“I suppose you’re right,” she agreed reluctantly, giving Kenna a small smile.

“You’ll see that I am,” Kenna said, sounding relieved. “I love you as a sister, Lola. You deserve better than Stéphane Nacisse.”

Kenna left shortly after but her words stayed with Lola for the rest of the afternoon. _He wants whatever use you can be to him._ But instead of Narcisse, Lola’s focus shifted to Francis; the man she had barely begun to understand before they tumbled into bed together. Had she been a way for him to forget Mary? She thought of his appearance at her bedside after she had given birth and wondered if she had not been near death and still Mary told him, would he have come at all? She recalled with clarity his lack of interest in her or her son until he held the baby in his arms; he had said he understood her desire to leave court yet refused her to leave by claiming her son.

She knew both Mary and Francis had been at odds with Narcisse since his arrival to court. It was possibly only a matter of time before they learned of her ongoing association with the older man. Would Francis, or even Mary, use it to gain the upper hand?

Her thoughts and questions continued to run around her head as she dressed for dinner and as she walked, alone, towards the banquet hall.

“Lady Lola.” All her thoughts shattered at the low, teasing voice that reignited the strange feeling of pleasure and pain on the skin of her left forearm. She tried to think of Mary’s disappointment, of her son’s well-being, but he called her name again and voice was like a rope tugging tightly around her. She turned, helpless against it; she looked into his eyes and knew she was lost.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think and thank you for reading!


End file.
